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Princeton University researchers have developed a computational model for creating a "perfect glass" that never crystallizes—even at absolute zero. Published in Nature Scientific Reports, the model is a new way of thinking about glass and details the extremely unusual properties of a perfect glass.
"We know that if you make anything cold enough it will crystallize, but this is an extremely exotic situation where you're completely avoiding that," said corresponding author Salvatore Torquato, a Princeton professor of chemistry and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials.
Scientists researching glass have been puzzled by its nature for more than a century. The unruly configuration of its molecules suggests that it should flow like a liquid yet it is as rigid and unyielding as a solid. The glass transition, or the temperature when cooled liquids transform into a glass, is another mystery. Whereas the transition from a liquid to a solid is extremely sharp, at 0 degrees Celsius in water for example, glasses can form over a range of temperatures and only if the liquids were cooled rapidly enough to avoid crystallization.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday November 29 2016, @10:04PM
If you're ever really bored an on topic discussion is the glass/rubbery Tg glass transition temperature of epoxy plastics. It changes over time and doesn't happen at too high of a temperature. Epoxy will never reflow like solder but its mechanical and fatigue properties do convert from rubbery to glassy usually somewhere lower than the boiling point of water but above room temp. And it varies with age since cure time and all that. You need a real aerospace mfgr website not the place that sells slop to walmart if you want to read whitepapers and application documents about this. But, yeah, glass transition temp is a "thing" with at least some plastics and its at least marginally interesting to read about.
Another fun topic if you're really bored is its easy to draw analogies between the article topic of glass transition temp and solder transition temps. Especially fun since failed solder joints often appear crystal gray not glassy smooth. There's not much on google about this probably because its a false chemistry analogy although it looks similar from a distance.